Northern Ireland v Greece (02/06/2022)

GOOD EVENING Welcome to the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for the first in an unprecedented quadruple header of senior men’s international fixtures in just 11 days.

The decision to move the FIFA World Cup to December has made this a very unusual year from an international fixtures perspective. Today we face Greece in the latest edition of the UEFA Nations League and we will be back here on Sunday 12 June to play Cyprus, having visited Cyprus and Kosovo in the meantime! So no time for Ian and the squad to don their speedos and top up their tans over the next few days. Holidays will have to wait . The UEFA Nations League is now in its third edition and has been a great success from a broadcasting and commercial perspective so far, with teams pitted against other nations of similar stature in the competition, plus chances for promotion and relegation. For ourselves, results have not yet taken off, and we hope to put that to rights today and over the next few games as we now find ourselves in League C looking to bounce back with promotion to League B. As with most things in life, our Northern Ireland squad has to evolve and renew over time and we are delighted to welcome some new faces to Ian’s panel this time with Shea Charles, Charlie McCann, Conor McMenamin and Brodie Spencer all featuring for the first time. On the subject of broadcasting, we say hello today to our new live rights partner, Premier Sports, who will produce and show all of our home and away men’s senior international games over the next two years.

Sky have been our partner in this area since 2008, however in the latest commercial tender exercise undertaken by UEFA, who manage the rights process for all 55 national associations, Premier was the winner this time and we welcome them to the Irish FA family. Now that (hopefully) the worst of coronavirus is behind us after two very difficult years, we are delighted that we can fill the stadium with spectators again, and your backing is so important to the squad. For many years the GAWA soundtrack to a home game has helped us to scale the heights, perhaps no more so than when Greece last visited, as we sealed our place at UEFA Euro 2016 with a 3-1 win. So please get behind Ian and the players as much as you can tonight , and let’s see if we can repeat that famous result .

Enjoy the match! PATRICK NELSON CHIEF EXECUT IVE IRISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIAT ION

IRISHFA.COM

7